Washington -- Central New York’s three Democratic congressmen stood with their party Saturday night and voted for the landmark health care reform legislation that narrowly passed the House of Representatives.

The bill was approved at 11:16 p.m. by a vote of 220 to 215, with only one Republican supporting the legislation. A total of 39 Democrats split with their party and opposed the bill. Democrats needed 218 votes for passage.

Reps. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, and Michael Arcuri, D-Utica, had been undecided until Saturday about whether to join their Democratic leaders and support the legislation.

Newly elected Rep. Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, had declared his support for the Affordable Health Care for America Act after he was sworn into office Friday.

The bill would cost about $1.2 trillion over 10 years, but rein in skyrocketing health care costs, provide insurance for almost all Americans and reduce the federal deficit by about $100 billion over the same period, according to House leaders.

Maffei said he made his decision after talking with dozens of constituents in recent days, including people with cancer and other diseases who told him the legislation -- while imperfect -- was too important to vote against.

U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei decided Saturday to vote for landmark legislation to reform the nation's health care system. Jennifer Meyers/The Post-Standard
President Barack Obama also made a personal appeal to Maffei in a telephone call Saturday afternoon in Washington.

In the six-minute conversation at 1:35 p.m., Maffei said the president listened to his concerns and promised to help address them in the final legislation that will be considered by the U.S. Senate.

“It is still possible to make changes, but they need to be made at a high level, which is why I spoke to the president,” Maffei said Saturday night, shortly before voting for the bill.

Maffei told the president he was concerned about the bill’s penalties for those businesses that fail to provide employer-mandated health insurance to workers. The freshman congressman said the penalty of 8 percent of total payroll would hurt businesses with low margins, and instead should be based on the total profit of a business.

“I told the president there has got to be some way to find a safety valve for these businesses,” Maffei said. “He was very open to that suggestion, and said, in fact, there were many people who brought up that problem.”

Maffei said he also told President Obama that he had reservations about the legislation adding a 2.5 percent excise tax on medical device sales, which the congressman said could hurt local business such as Welch Allyn in Skaneateles. The tax would raise $20 billion over 10 years. The Senate may favor a higher tax to raise $40 billion over 10 years.

Finally, Maffei said he told the president he had hoped for a public health insurance option that would have provided stiffer competition to private insurance plans.

“I would have preferred a more robust public option, but that just doesn’t seem possible politically right now,” Maffei said.

Maffei said he ultimately voted for the bill because of skyrocketing health costs that are hurting all levels of government, business and individuals.

“This bill does not do enough, but it does something,” Maffei said.

Arcuri agreed with his colleague.

“Inaction is not an option,” Arcuri said in a statement before the vote. “We’ve been debating health care reform for over 70 years. For the sake of our economic future, Upstate New York jobs and the future of our health care system, I will vote in favor of this health care reform legislation when it comes before the House of Representatives.”